Well another typical English Bank Holiday weekend - wet and windy! The pond Irises seem to be loving this weather
and spending time indoors gave me time to get some pics of the Peggles
who may well be destined for Etsy. Of course it didn't rain solidly all weekend, gratutitous chicken picture follows:
"Do you like butter"?
So what happened to me?
Did the anomaly really open up and swallow me?
Did I get lost amongst the daffodils?
No but I did go here and here and I've been watching re-runs of this
on daytime TV of all things. (Hangs head in shame).
And I've finished this (great fun),
and I'm in the middle of reading this (grim but compelling).
Oh, and I bought these (pretty and almost practical, well they have low heels).
Now I'm off to watch this, courtesy of The Telegraph.
Doesn't time fly ......
I promise to try harder next week!
In the middle of the night the windows started to rattle, "What was that?" asked my husband.
"It's just the cat coming in" I replied.
But no it wasn't the cat
If you click on the above it should enlarge so that you can read the text.
Last week was a bit of a difficult one here at Willow House. It began with the demise of yet another of our ex-battery hens. Hester was found dead in her bed. We were warned by the rescue people that these ex battery girls didn't have very long lives but to someone who's previous chickens lived up to 9 years it just doesn't seem right. Is it due to the privations of their former life? Or due to their breeding, bred for maximum egg laying during the first year?
So now we have just two hens and they are the happiest of creatures.
And yes we would do it all again.
Next Jasper developed a simply huge swelling on his neck, an emergency trip to the vet to confirm my suspicions that it was indeed an abcess. He had been fighting again. This resulted in the abcess having to be lanced and Jasper coming home looking like his throat had been cut. It also resulted in a very unhappy cat as I wouldn't let him out of the house for a few days and he spent much of his time bemoaning the fact by wailing around the house and leaping on me at every available opportunity. But all's well that ends well and he is now fully recovered although a bit tatty about the neck line.
Oddly poor old Stu also suffered from an abcess last week but fortunately I didn't have to keep him confined to the house and an emergency trip to the dentist and a course of antibiotics has sorted that out.
Enough misery.
Last week was also a lucky one, I was one of the winners in Snapdragon's draw and despite feeling under the weather herself Jane still managed to get this bag to me in time for the weekend.
Thanks Jane it is beautiful and I've already put it to good use. Sorry I've been a bit lazy and used the photograph from the Snapdragon blog.
I've also been a bit lazy about responding to tags and stuff, Rosie very kindly awarded me this:
Thank you Rosie.
And now I'm supposed to tell you 7 weird things about myself.
Me weird? Well yes of course I am but as I'm also feeling decidedly lazy I'm going to refer anyone who wants to know about my weirdness to this old post.
And as usual I can't possibly make a decision as to who to pass the award on to because quite frankly I think you are all amazing in your own way.
Not really but what do you do when you run a small business and not only is there a postal strike but your telephone lines go down at the same time?
Panic or chill out?
Well I figured if I couldn't change it I might just as well take advantage of it, so for almost a week we have been virtually incommunicado with the world and it was wonderful.
But the telephones are now working, Broadband is back, and we recieved our first lot of post in a week today so it's all hands on deck and back to work. Back to blogging in a day or two.
As Autumn approaches I feel a sadness, a melancholy that is unsual for me at this time of year. Usually I embrace the change of seasons with delight, but not this year. Perhaps it is because we seem to have seen so little sunshine this summer
that I don't find myself looking forward to the first frosts, the fogs rolling in across the river and the crunch of leaves underfoot.
Perhaps it's because, with the added responsiblities of running a business while my husband convalesces, we haven't spent our afternoons by the sea,
walked in the woods,
or stormed any castles.
It has been a long, a difficult summer here at Willow House and I have found myself longing for a return to a normal life. The life I led prior to the accident. The life where I would arise in the morning and on nothing more than a whim drive to Wells for breakfast at Nelsons.
The life where I would buy my vegetables and fruit from the Bury St Edmund's maket
simply because I liked going there.
Lunch at Byfords in Holt
just because I felt like it.
A normal life? Perhaps not, more like a spoilt and priveledged life but never the less my life and I want it back. What have I missed most? Bundling the kids and dogs into the car and walking around the lakes at Bawsey early in the morning when there is no one else about. You can't do that when you have to be in the office at nine.
So no I don't long for a normal life I long for a return to my exta-ordinary life. A chaotic life with no time constaints, no order, where I do what I want on nothing more than a whim.
This summer has passed me by and I regret its passing, the lost days in the sun. But instead of a sadness and a melancholy perhaps I should embrace the change, welcome Autumn with a Rosh Hashanah of my own. The start of a new season, a new year for some, new beginnings, I wonder what it will bring?
The weekend papers,
a little thrifting,
a good book,
a new family TV series to watch with the kids, ITV's Primeval,
making a stack of blueberry pancakes to serve with butter and maple syrup and
a brand new episode of Folyles War.
PS Not everbody had a lazy weekend, Fiona must have been frightfully busy to accomplish this.
This weekend sees yet another birthday at Willow House. This time it is the turn of Alexander who is now 15 years old. He, like everyone else, has refused to have his photograph posted here. However, his dog Wishbone is happy to oblige, especially if there is a chance of chocolate cake.
So that's the birthdays over and done with and now we are into Advent, let the Christmas preparations commence!
Here is a photograph of Christmas past to put us in the mood
also from Christmas past
the Hobby Horses that I used to make and sell.
I haven't tried to sell any of the things that I make for the last 16 years but having got a bit carried away with the French Knitting I've decided to take the plunge and give you the opportunity to buy some of my stuff. So tomorrow I will be putting some Homespun Angels, Happy Bluebirds and a few English Peg Fairies up for sale on this site.
In the meantime back to Teapots, thanks for all your comments on the previous post, it would seem that there are quite a few teapot collections out there. Maddy and Wendy have already posted theirs and there is a collection of sugar bowls and creamers over at http://inside-the-shell.blogspot.com ,please take a look if you have the time.
Shampoo bottles, have you remembered to save them? I'll be posting the tutorial at the end of the week.
Right I'm off to eat more chocolate cake. You will come back tomorrow to see what I'm selling, won't you? Please.
I'll leave you with a little sample
Enjoy the rest of the weekend.
Mid November and we are still seeing butterflies in the garden, mid November another birthday and another chocolate cake.
This time it is my youngests' birthday, Edward, and he is 13. I now have a housefull of teenagers!
Happy Birthday Edward.
And as it is now official that I no longer have young chidren to make things with I want to share a tutorial with you. But not yet. First you need to collect some empty plastic bottles, shampoo ones are good, like these:
With three teenagers in the house we get through an awful lot of shampoo and conditioner, probably more than the average family so I'm giving you time to collect the bottles before the tutorial. You will need at least six bottles, you will also need newspaper, PVA glue and paints.
This project will take a bit of time, in fact you could run it through the whole of the Christmas holidays if you are so inclined and at the end of it you will (hopefully) have a wonderful Christmas heirloom to treasure for years to come.
I'll post the tutorial in December so get saving those empty bottles.
PS The background in the bottle photograph is just one of the vintage wallpapers that I have recently started to collect.
The other day was Jame's 17th birthday. It is sometimes hard to believe that I have a son quite this old. Time has gone so quickly since that first Halloween with a new baby, back then it wasn't a special day but having children changed that.
Because Jame's always loved Halloween his birthday cakes have tended to have a Halloween theme which happily (for me) he still seems to want despite his advanced years! The combination of marshmallow and chocolate on this one was particularly yummy.
If all goes to plan there should be another cake by the end of the day, a Halloween cake.
